Arman Tsarukyan is as good at locking in submissions as he is escaping them.
It was quite the scare for the #1-ranked UFC Lightweight his last time out as Tsarukyan fended off multiple submission attempts from Brazilian jiu-jitsu mastermind Charles Oliveira at UFC 300. Nearly being choked out in every round, Tsarukyan somehow survived and did enough to capture a decision win to earn his place as the division’s next title challenger against the lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
How Tsarukyan Has Been ‘Killing’ Time
With training camp likely to take place for the title fight later this year, American Top Team’s Tsarukyan has been sharpening his skills elsewhere in South Florida. Chasing after Makhachev, it’s not much of a surprise that Tsarukyan is a big-game hunter and he’d show just that with the carcass of a vanquished alligator on his back recently (pictured below).
Tsarukyan Tells Tale Of The Hunt
With five submission victories on his MMA record, Tsarukyan added another choke to the resume, this time over an alligator.
“I choked him out,” Tsarukyan recalled of alligator hunting on The MMA Hour (h/t: MMA Mania). “I pulled him out from the river, choked him and put him on my back.
“In Florida, I got a license to kill the alligator,” Tsarukyan explained. “You throw the hook in the river, the alligator got the hook and you got to pull it. We pulled two. Me and my friend we pulled one alligator. He was like seven or eight feet, but there is 12 feet, 13 feet alligators and hopefully, he was small. Maybe 50-70 pounds. Catch it without meat or anything. Just hook, empty hook. I kill a lot of animals, but I didn’t post it because other animals, it’s sad, but alligators, it’s okay.”
‘Easy Fight For Me,’ Tsarukyan On UFC Champ Makhachev
Keeping what he kills, Arman Tsarukyan will look to take the championship belt from Islam Makhachev as his ultimate trophy.
“It would be a very easy fight for me,” Tsarukyan said of a rematch with Makhachev, who successfully defended his title against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302. I could [out]wrestle him in that fight as well because he got tired. When you’re tired, you can’t do sh*t. Even if you have the best skills in the world, if you’re tired, you’re done. All his five-round fights, he got tired as well.”
